Containerization

Containerization, method of transporting freight by placing it in large containers. Containerization is an important cargo-moving technique developed in the 20th century. Road-and-rail containers, sealed boxes of standard sizes, were used early in the century; but it was not until the 1960s that containerization became a major element in ocean shipping, made possible by new ships specifically designed for container carrying. Large and fast, container ships carry containers above deck as well as below; and their cargoes are easily loaded and unloaded, making possible more frequent trips and minimum lost time in port. Port facilities for rapid handling of containers are necessarily complex and expensive and usually justified only if there is large cargo traffic flowing both ways. A container may leave a factory by truck and be transferred to a railroad car, thence to a ship, and, finally, to a barge; such transfers of an uncontainerized cargo would add substantially to cost.

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oceangoing vessel designed to transport large, standard-sized containers of freight. Rail-and-road containers were used early in the 20th century; in the 1960s containerization became a major element in ocean shipping as well. Container ships, which are large and fast, carry containers above deck...

...horizontally in order to reach the hoisting gear and then loading and unloading rail cars and trucks at pierside. By 1960 these factors had led to the introduction of standardized steel or aluminum containers—8 × 8 × 40 feet in the most common size—into which almost any nonbulk commodity could be stowed. The primary advantages in containerized shipping are the radical...

...piggyback carloadings a year. In Europe, few railroads had clearances ample enough to accept a highway box trailer piggybacked on a flatcar of normal frame height. As shipping lines developed their container transport business in the early 1960s, European railroads concentrated initially on container-on-flatcar (COFC) intermodal systems. A few offered a range of small containers of their own...